When We First Met- A Castle short story
by Annabethian
Summary: The story of when Kate Beckett and Richard Castle really first met. When they ran into each other when they were young.


"Rogers!"

Richard turned his head when he heard his friend's call his name. "Just a second!" he called back. He drank the last sip of his coffee and tossed it into the garbage can on the sidewalk before running to catch up. He and his friends all wore their navy blue Edgewyk Academy blazers and grey pants. They were all visiting family in the city for the day, well except for Richard. His mom was too busy; he just tagged along to keep the other guys company. Plus, it was an added bonus to be away from the boarding school for a while. The boys laughed as they continued to walk through the park, "Why are you such a slow-poke?" one said with a smirk. Richard rolled his eyes and punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Lay off, Marcus, I like to enjoy my coffee instead of devouring it like a bunch of animals dying of thirst." He said, eyeing the rest of the group. They all grinned.

"And what animal do you suppose I'd be? A lion?" Marcus said, "Roar!" The other boys rolled their eyes, "More like a monkey." A blonde boy, named Tyler, said. Marcus paused for a moment before pointing at him, "I'm okay with that." He said.

"If he's a monkey, then I want to be a shark!" a shorter boy with black hair piped up. Richard laugh, "Of course you would, Daniel. Why are we even talking about this?" he said with a goofy grin.

"Well mister high and mighty, what animal would _you_ be?" Marcus asked. Richard thought for a moment, "Hmm…I like tigers." He said. Marcus squinted his eyes slightly, examining Richard from top to bottom, "I dunno, Rogers. I think you'd be more of a parrot."

"Yeah, because he never stops talking!" Tyler said, making them all burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Richard protested. "What I say can be very valuable."

"Yeah, says who?"

"Well… Me." Richard said, before he joined in the laughter. He ran a hand through his brown hair as the laughter started to gradually die down. They had stopped by a group of trees in the park. Marcus grabbed onto a branch and hoisted himself up, sitting with his back against the tree trunk with one leg hanging down. He pulled a small ball out of his pocket and tossed it to Tyler. "There's still an issue that we haven't discussed." He said. The other three boys turned to look up at him, "And that would be…?" Richard said.

"_Teresa"_ Marcus said with a mischievous grin. Tyler rolled his eyes, "Cummon guys. Can we just drop it?" he asked, tossing the ball to Richard, who caught it. There was a chorus of snickers as the boys continued to whisper, "_Teresaaaa_", all around him. Daniel laughed, "No way, man! Who is she?" he asked.

"No one."

"Yeah right!" Marcus said. Richard threw the ball around his back up to Marcus. "Fancy." He said as he caught it. He turned his head back to Tyler, "We say your letters to her. Our little Tyler is in looooooveee." He said.

Tyler grimaced slightly, "Oh, grow up you three. " Richard nudged him in the side lightly and winked, "Not a chance."

"Can we _please_ just drop it?" Tyler begged. Marcus jumped down from the tree and stuck his tongue out at Tyler before shoving the ball back into his pocket. "Fine. For now." He said, "I want ice cream, anyone else?"

There was a unanimous sea of yes's as the spring sun beat down on their backs. "There's an ice cream place across the street" Daniel said. Marcus nodded, "To the ice cream place across the street!" he cried and they began to run off.

But Richard hadn't moved.

All three boys turned around, "Rogers?" Marcus said.

Richard didn't answer. He just continued to look off into the distance, slightly unfocused, like he was listening to something.

"Ricky!"

He blinked back to reality and jumped slightly, turning to look at them. "What?!" he asked.

"You comin' or what?"

Richard ran a hand through his hair like he was thinking of something, "Uh yeah. In a sec. go on without me, I'll catch up."

The boys looked at him weird for a moment before shrugging, "If you say so." And they went off.

Once they were gone, Richard spun around slowly, trying to pin point where a certain sound was coming from. He had head crying, like a little girl crying. His first instinct was to help, so he felt the need to find the source f the sound. He continued to walk down the park pathway, walking past laughing and playing kids and their parents, birds flying away when he came to close. He stopped in front of a tree, and he listened. There it was again, the crying. He put a hand on the tree and slowly looked around it. A little girl was sitting behind it with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her shoulder length brown hair hiding her face and her probably tear stained cheeks. She couldn't have been older than six or seven.

Richard walked around the tree quietly and knelt down next to the girl, "Hey… are you okay?" he asked gently. The girl jumped in surprised, letting out a little squeak. He smiled kindly, "It's okay, I just want to help." He said. The girl blinked up at him for a minute before wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. She shook her head.

Richard sat down in front of her, "What happened?" he asked. When she moved, he noticed her knee's were scraped up and she had a few leaves in her hair. The girl sniffled and her voice quivered, "The other kid's said they didn't want to play with me…" she began, "When I said that I wasn't going to go, they pushed me." She touched the scrapes on her knees gently; he could tell that they hurt. Richard frowned, "That wasn't very nice of them." He said. The girl nodded in agreement.

"Here, I might have something that will help." Richard said. The girl watched as he rummaged through his pockets until he pulled out a little white strip. He held it up, inside was a band aid. "I am probably the clumsiest person you will ever meet, so I use these way too often." He said, "From personal experience, I know it's always a good idea to have a few with you." He peeled off the paper parts and gently pressed the band aid over her cut knees. She winced slightly but then smiled a bit once he was done.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

Richard smiled, "Don't sweat it, kid." He said. "What's your name?"

The girl brushed some of her hair out of her face, "Katie." She said.

"I'm Richard." He held out a hand. The girl smiled a little bigger and shook it. "I like your name." she said.

"Thank you." Richard said with a smile. He looked around, "Where are your parents?" he asked.

Katie frowned slightly, "Working."

Richard looked at her curiously, "Then who are you hear with?" he asked.

"The babysitter…"

"I take it you don't like her very much." Richard said, he could tell by her tone. Katie shook her head, "She doesn't care about me." She said.

"I'm sure that's not true." Richard said, crossing his legs. Katie just nodded, "She ignores me most of the time."

Richard tilted his head, "Well then that's her loss, because you're wonderful!" he said, smiling. That made Katie's eyes light up ever so slightly. "Come on." He said, "How about we go sit in the sun. You must be cold from being in the shade this long." He stood up and brushed off his pants. He took Katie's hand and helped her stand up, walking over to a park bench that was illuminated by the sun, and sat down. When Katie sat back on the bench, her short legs dangled over the side. Richard leaned on his knees and smiled at her, "Tell me about yourself, Katie." He said.

Katie looked like she was thinking hard about what to say. Her eyebrows were furrowed in thought and her lips were pursed. Richard could help but think that she was the most adorable little kid he'd ever seen. Richard didn't really expect what she blurted out next.

"My favorite color is purple." She said.

Richard laughed, "Well that's a start!" he said, "How about… How old are you?"

"Seven." She said without hesitation. He could tell that she was a pretty smart kid.

"What's your favorite food?" He asked.

"Pancakes!" She said.

"Do you like Slushies?"

"Only the blue ones."

"Do you believe in unicorns?" He asked

"No." she said, matter-of-factly.

"Why not?"

"I just don't."

"Well okay then. Do you like coffee?" he asked. At that Katie's face immediately contorted and she shook her head vigorously, "Yuck. Coffee is gross!" she exclaimed.

"Easy there." Richard warned, laughing, "If you keep doing that, your face will get stuck like that."

Katie stuck her tongue out at him, "Yeah right."

Richard had to admit, he officially loved this kid. He didn't think he'd met one that was so funny and open with her opinions. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked. Katie tiled her head, "I don't know…" she said. Richard stood up, "Well what about… a princess?" he asked, striking a fancy pose and waving his hand with his head held high. Katie bit her lip to stop herself from giggling, shaking her head.

Richard thought for a moment, "hmm. How about a ballerina?" he said. He began to dance around, horribly I might add, like a ballerina. He held his arms out and spun around, much to Katie's amusement. "No." she said. He crossed his arms, "Gosh your difficult." He said with the hint of a smile. "What about a superhero!" He lifted his leg and held out his arms in front of him like he was flying. Katie covered her mouth, trying very hard not to laugh, shaking her head.

"A rock star?" Richard asked, dropping to his knee's as he played air guitar with his tongue sticking out. Katie lost it, she started laughing hysterically. "No!" she said, gasping for breaths between her laughs.

"A cop?" he said, pointing a finger gun at her, "Bang!"

She paused for a moment, but shook her head, her giggling dying down.

Richard sat down with a huff, "Well then what _do_ you want to be?" he said, slightly out of breath. She thought for a moment, "I want to be like my mom." She said.

"And what does your mom do?" Richard asked. Katie scratched her head, trying to re call the word. "I don't remember." She said. Richard smiled, "Well I'm sure it's a great job." He said.

"Katie!"

Richard jumped up when he heard someone call her name and suddenly a teenaged girl around his age was running towards them. She stopped by the bench, kneeling down in front of Katie, out of breath. "Oh thank god your okay!" she exclaimed, her curly blonde hair falling around her shoulders. Katie off the bench, her smile disappearing.

"You must be the babysitter." Richard said. The girl stood up and eyed him, "Yeah… and you are?" she asked.

"Richard." He said with a smile, holding out his hand. "I found her behind this tree and I made sure she was okay."

The girl nodded slightly and shook his hand, "I'm Danni. Uh… thanks for taking care of her."

Richard grinned, "No problem. She's really an awesome kid."

Danni nodded and took Katie's hand, "Well we have to go, but thanks."

Katie wriggled out of Danni's grip and hugged Richard, "Thanks for making me feel better." She said quietly.

Richard knelt down on one knee and smiled at her, "No problem kid. I'm sure we'll see each other again someday." Katie smiled at him before she allowed Danni to pull her away. Neither of them knew just how true that was.

Richard watched as the two girls walked away before he turned and went to go catch up with his friends. Once he was gone, Danni knelt down next to Katie and frowned, "Katherine Beckett. Don't you ever run off on me like that again, you gave me a heart attack."

Katie sighed slightly at the use of her full name and she turned to watch the teenage boy walk off. "Okay." She said, without fully paying attention to what the babysitter had said. "Good." Danni said, pulling her away from the park.

That night back at Edgewyk academy, Richard wrote down the event's of that day in a little… journal of sorts. Every now and then he'd just write in it for the fun of it, sometimes to remember something interesting that happened, or just to doodle or play around. He filled up five pages just talking about his experience with the interesting girl, Katie.

He still has that journal to this very day, it sits in a packed up box somewhere in his apartment, unopened since the day he filled those last few pages all about the girl he'd one day fall in love with.


End file.
